All Analysis articles – Page 22
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Analysis
David Charman: chairman CWA
Our industry has once again moved into a whole new era, with Tesco taking ownership of Booker and its forecourt brands and the demonisation of diesel as a road fuel. I’m not sure if I would be delighted or worried if I were a Booker-supplied brand. Will the buying power ...
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Analysis
Building growth
The seemingly inexorable rise in the number of sites run by the Top 50 Indies continued last year, but the increase of 99 to 2,222 is much lower than the 300-plus increases of the two previous years.However, the primary reason for the slower growth is that the mass sell-off of ...
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Analysis
Brian Madderson: chairman PRA
The anti-diesel bandwagon is rolling. It was tax incentives in 2001 that encouraged both private drivers and businesses to buy diesel engine cars. The justification related to climate change and lower carbon dioxide emissions. The issues of toxic nitrogen oxide and higher levels of particulate matter were known but downplayed. ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: editor
The frustration is palpable as the realisation of the impact of changes to business rates being implemented in April is realised in companies big and small across the nation. Media headlines have yelled at every opportunity about the smaller retailers that appear to be being taxed out of business. The ...
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Analysis
Tracy West: Shop Talk
I’ve written about this before and I’m sure I’ll write about it again. It’s to do with today’s all-singing, all-dancing service stations. It’s not a complaint: I love them. I wish I had more near where I live or at least one decent one near where I live. The sites ...
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Analysis
Tapping into key trends
The internet has now been widely available for so long that many consumers have grown up with it, and as it continues to develop and affect more areas of everyone’s lives it is helping to shape trends in shopper behaviour in the convenience sector. HIM Research & Consulting has been ...
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Analysis
Chris Hunt: UKPIA director general
’May you live in interesting times’ is actually purported to be a Chinese curse 2016 was certainly interesting for society in general and our industry in particular. Whether it was cursed remains to be seen. Brexit, both in the run up and subsequent period, following the surprise referendum result, has ...
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Analysis
Peter Harding: business development director Htec
Just take a look at any magazine or web page and ask yourself what do you see: home automation. There are many, many devices to control home peripherals as well as home applications such as cameras and recording devices, smoke and humidity detectors. But what’s new in the forecourt retail ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: editor
The momentum around automotive fuels, and what kind of motor vehicles we’ll be driving in the future seems to be really building into something more tangible than previously seen. Last month came the news that a global initiative to drive use of hydrogen (see News page 4), had been agreed ...
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Analysis
Shop Talk: Tracy West
Happy New Year to you all. Let’s hope it’s going to be a good one. After all the surprises of 2016, you can’t help but wonder what’s in store and I’m going to take that quite literally and have a look at the new products we might get to see ...
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Analysis
Investing in growth
Many dealers continued adding to their estates in 2016, driving up demand, and therefore the value of sites fuelling continued optimism and investment in the fuel retailing sector.Clive Sheppard, director of Top 50 Indie Chartman:"2017 promises to be our most exciting year yet. Ongoing investment by the forecourt industry ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: editor
Happy New Year to you all I hope trading was bouyant over the festive season. But while I had intended to continue in positive fashion, I am sorry to hear that it wasn’t a very good start to the New Year for Top 50 Indie, High Noon Stores, which went ...
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Analysis
Kevin Eastwood: executive director BOSS
Police forces across the country are under pressure and forecourt retailers have a responsibility to help the police to use their limited resources effectively. We know that it’s important for forecourt retailers to do more than just report a crime. Unfortunately, some retailers report issues that are not crimes and ...
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Analysis
James Lowman: ACS chief executive
As we build up to the new financial year starting in April when businesses in England and Wales will start paying rates based on the latest revaluation, there’s been a lot in the papers about business rates. While a lot of the media coverage talks about the pounds and pence ...
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Analysis
Shop Talk: Tracy West
I must say that I’m feeling a little bit smug and that’s because all of my Christmas shopping is virtually done. I start early to avoid the crowds and the rush. I don’t mind a bit of atmosphere in shops but don’t like to see people fighting over the last ...
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Analysis
Risks of reform
A House of Lords Select Committee is currently interviewing witnesses as it considers making proposals to reform the licensing laws. Any recommendations will not be binding on the Government, but are likely to be persuasive, and could impact on petrol retailers.The Select Committee is considering a range of issues.A Public ...
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Analysis
David Charman: chairman CWA
When I look back over the past 20 years trading as a convenience petrol retailer, the change has been enormous. At the start when the oil company logo was above the door, we were viewed with the suspicion that everything we sold would somehow be smeared with oil or smell ...
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Analysis
Brian Madderson: chairman PRA
For several months, the PRA has been lobbying ministers to introduce a fuel duty cut with 3ppl recommended for both grades. The Chancellor invited PRA earlier this month to meet senior officials at HM Treasury and HM Revenue & Customs to present their case. A fuel duty cut would provide ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: editor
It’s not so long ago that you would have recoiled to think that supermarkets and independent retailers could work together on any kind of project, the former having kicked the ’proverbials’ out of the latters’ livelihoods for many years. Now we have two Top 50 groups Rontec and MFG (see ...
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Analysis
Shop Talk: Tracy West
The time when we used to say to each other ’There are only so many shopping days until Christmas’ are rather redundant as shopping is more or less a 24/7 activity thanks to the internet. There’s no doubt that the internet, as well as all of the discounters, are taking ...